March 14, 2009

Modern Mongolian Literature in Seven Days - Part 7: L Ölziitögs

L Ölziitögs (b1972) is one of a growing number of younger poets who, while not totally rejecting the traditional thematic and stylistic concerns of Mongolian poetry, are nonetheless looking outside the country and incorporating and adapting the ideas of foreign literatures into their own work. Her short stories (represented in today's downloads by "A Bond" and "The Aquarium") recall the Latin American magic realists, and especially Jose Luis Borges, although there is a sinister side which is also reminiscent of the early C20 writer Natsagdorj.

The third file available below contains thirteen of her poems, which are similarly modernist in spirit and treatment, although more traditional somehow in their themes. Together with such writers as G-A Ayurzana, G Delgermaa, B Odgerel and B Galsansuh, Ölziitgs represents a spirit of innovation and experimentation which, until recently, had been all but lacking in the literature.

These poems are also important because they are some of the only poetry translations made by my friend and colleague, Sh Tsog. Tsog was a fine man and a fine translator, originally trained in Germany as an economist, who became bored with Francis Fukuyama and who embraced the vision of revealing Mongolian literature with me to the west. We collaborated on Very Big White Elephant: New Voices in Mongolian Poetry (eventually published in Ulaanbaatar in 2007) and on An Anthology of Mongolian Literature (2008), but both of these books appeared after his untimely death, at the age of 55, in 2006.

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Modern Mongolian Literature in Seven Days - Part 7: L Ölziitögs

L Ölziitögs (b1972) is one of a growing number of younger poets who, while not totally rejecting the traditional thematic and stylistic concerns of Mongolian poetry, are nonetheless looking outside the country and incorporating and adapting the ideas of foreign literatures into their own work. Her short stories (represented in today's downloads by "A Bond" and "The Aquarium") recall the Latin American magic realists, and especially Jose Luis Borges, although there is a sinister side which is also reminiscent of the early C20 writer Natsagdorj.

The third file available below contains thirteen of her poems, which are similarly modernist in spirit and treatment, although more traditional somehow in their themes. Together with such writers as G-A Ayurzana, G Delgermaa, B Odgerel and B Galsansuh, Ölziitgs represents a spirit of innovation and experimentation which, until recently, had been all but lacking in the literature.

These poems are also important because they are some of the only poetry translations made by my friend and colleague, Sh Tsog. Tsog was a fine man and a fine translator, originally trained in Germany as an economist, who became bored with Francis Fukuyama and who embraced the vision of revealing Mongolian literature with me to the west. We collaborated on Very Big White Elephant: New Voices in Mongolian Poetry (eventually published in Ulaanbaatar in 2007) and on An Anthology of Mongolian Literature (2008), but both of these books appeared after his untimely death, at the age of 55, in 2006.

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